When an airline breaks your wheelchair you lose more than equipment
I wish this were rare. It isn’t. As many other wheelchair users and I have documented, chairs get damaged far too often. I have publicly said my chair is damaged on about one out of every ten flights. When you consider that a round trip involves two flights, that means airlines damage my wheelchair badly enough to report 1 out of every 5 trips. I am long past reporting things like gouged wheels and small tears or dents that I can fix myself. This is not hyperbole. Would you fly if you knew that your leg would be broken once out of every 5 trips? It is a lived experience that aligns with federal data showing that thousands of wheelchairs and scooters are mishandled every year.
Here is the timeline that occurs every time this happens. I have gone through this six times in the past four years. Yeah, I fly more than just about anyone I know between archery, business, and family. But this just shouldn’t happen.
The day it happens
You get off, and your chair does not arrive intact. Sometimes it is bent. Sometimes electronics are dead. Sometimes it is missing. Many times, the damage is extremely visible, but no one from cargo wants to be there when you see it. You ask for the airline’s Complaint Resolution Official. By law, every airline must have a CRO with authority to resolve disability complaints in real time. If you are smart, you refuse to leave the jet bridge until you negotiate the travel compensation you receive. Your only power exists while you are holding up the next flight, which is going to piss off those passengers and cost the airline money. You demand the CRO come with you to the baggage claim to bump you to the front of the line to fill out the paperwork. The CRO says, “Clearly, you’ve done this before.” Everyone glares at you as you roll off the jet bridge to the gate because they know you are the reason they will be late. You are pushed to sign off that this is the only damage. DON’T DO THAT. You may discover hidden damage after you leave the airport, after all, if they handled it poorly enough to cause one set of damage that you can see, there may be a second damaged area you can’t see.
While the airline scrambles for a loaner, you sit in an airport chair that doesn't fit your body, without your seating system, and may be unable to leave on your own. The loss of independence is immediate and total. Most non-disabled people think this is merely an inconvenience. For wheelchair users, it can be dangerous.
What the next weeks actually look like
Below is a typical timeline for repair or replacement. The range I have personally experienced is three weeks to two months. It is sometimes longer when parts are backordered or need to be custom built.
Day 0 to Day 3
File a damage report before leaving the airport.
Get a written CRO statement and a claim number.
Request a comparable loaner chair. Document everything with photos and emails.
Figure out how the lack of a fully functioning chair is going to impact your life for the next month. Reschedule other travel plans, doctors’ appointments, etc.
Week 1
The airline assigns an adjuster to coordinate repair. You’re asked for invoices, serial numbers, clinician letters, and vendor contacts.
Everything has to be approved by the airline.
You may not be allowed to work with your preferred vendor.
Week 2
Vendor produces a repair estimate. If it is high, the airline may ask for a second estimate. Again, everything has to be approved by the airline.
Week 3 to Week 4
If the chair is economically repairable, parts are ordered.
If the chair is beyond salvaging, you need to go through the replacement process.
Week 5 to Week 6
Parts trickle in. Technician schedules repair. You juggle work, health care, family, and transportation. None of that is easy without the right chair.
Week 7 to Week 8
Repairs completed or a replacement is finally approved.
The vendor fits the chair.
You test, adjust, and pray that nothing else crops up a month later.
Every step above is real for many of us. The Department of Transportation’s own rules and fact sheets spell out the CRO’s obligations. They do not require that the process be either convenient or fast. You are not reimbursed for the time you spend on this, or the depreciation of the value of your chair caused by the damage.
The human cost
A broken mobility device is NOT a broken suitcase. It is your mobility, posture, skin integrity, pain management, employment, and caregiving plan. When airlines mishandle even one percent of mobility devices, thousands of people lose their independence for weeks each year. That statistic conceals a mountain of harm.
Where policy stands right now
Everything I’ve described so far is what happens with good law in place.
The DOT published the Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights. It summarizes existing rights under the Air Carrier Access Act. It is not a new statute and it does not expand those rights on its own. (Department of Transportation)
In December 2024, DOT issued the “Wheelchair Rule” to strengthen protections, including training and accountability when wheelchairs are damaged or delayed. Airlines sued in February 2025 to block parts of that rule.
In June 2025, DOT announced it would pause enforcement until at least August 1, 2025, while it reviewed legal issues raised in that litigation. Disability advocates and the National Council on Disability objected, warning that delays prolong harm.
The current administration has made it painfully clear that they don’t give a single hoot about people with disabilities. Suspended investigations, shut down accessibility programs, and Medicaid cuts have harmed us repeatedly. Our rights are being eroded through non-enforcement and broad deregulatory moves, combined with airline lawsuits aimed at rolling back recent wheelchair protections. Those moves do not repeal the Bill of Rights document itself, yet they can chip away at how our rights are applied and enforced in practice.
The future everyone keeps promising
Advocates are pushing for in-cabin travel while remaining in your own wheelchair. The FAA agreed to define safety criteria, which is a step, not a solution. I do not expect to see widespread in-cabin wheelchair seating in my lifetime unless there is sustained political will, funding, and clear safety standards that manufacturers and airlines actually implement.
We need systemic change
Every time this happens, I ask the agents “why aren’t we seeing any improvements.” I’ve never heard a satisfactory answer
Treat wheelchair mishandling as a preventable safety failure. Measure it, publish it monthly, and tie executive compensation to improvement. (Department of Transportation)
Enforce the Wheelchair Rule without delay. Training and accountability reduce harm. (Department of Transportation)
Escalate penalties when a chair is damaged or delayed. The financial pain should be felt by the entity that caused the harm.
Require accessible, comparable loaners on site. Not next week. Today.
Design toward in-cabin wheelchair travel. Stop pretending aisle chairs and cargo holds are good enough.
I want to believe airlines can fix this with process tweaks. Experience says otherwise. A complete systemic overhaul is required, from ground handling to training to incentives to enforcement. Until that happens, people with disabilities will keep losing our independence at the jet bridge, one flight at a time.